Suzy Menkes to auction her vintage collection

Veteran fashion critic Suzy Menkes has been collecting vintage pieces for even longer than shes been in the business, and now shes set to auction off her haul.

From July 11-22 Christies will host an auction entitled In My Fashion: The Suzy Menkes Collection, and the pieces that Menkes has amassed over the last 50 years will go under the hammer. And in a thoroughly democratic move the auction will be online only, with bids opening on the 11 July and running for a fortnight.

80 pieces will be put up for sale, featuring everything from Ossie Clark swirling print dresses to Yves Saint Laurent trouser suits, Chanel bags to Hermes scarves and with estimated prices starting at £200. And given Suzy's encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and her exacting eye, we're expecting the range to be something very special.

So why is Suzy selling pieces that she has so lovingly picked out? She says, with typical eloquence, 'I have never thrown anything out of my wardrobe since 1964. If I had a large open space in my home, I would dedicate it, like an art gallery, to my collection. But there is something sad about clothes laid in a tomb of trunks. They need to live again and this auction provides the opportunity for them to walk out in the sunshine, to dance the night away and to give someone else the joy that they gave to me.'

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